Off Limits
by Dude13
Summary: As one certain imaginary friend finds out, if you can't say anything nice about certain things, then it's best to keep your trap shut.


For the usual disclaimer, this takes place in my "series" like all my other works, where Mac lives at Foster's now after being adopted by his "big sister" Frankie.

Please Read and Review!

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_Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong!_

As the doorbell rang several straight times without pause, Mac grumbled sourly under his breath as he dashed across the foyer.

"Hold on! I'm coming!" he yelped skidding to a halt in front of the entranceway. "Gimme a sec, I'm-_AUGH_!"

The boy had barely cracked the door before a multi-colored blur burst inside, abruptly tackling the eight-year-old to the floor with the force of a miniature cannonball.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Mac!" The pigtailed girl squealed merrily as she thrust her face just inches away from the stunned boy's, flashing him a ridiculously gleeful toothy grin. Obviously well used to the routine, Mac just smiled weakly and gave her a little wave.

"Hey, Goo." He muttered as the madly tittering child rolled off him and hastily yanked him back to his feet.

"So, howya doin'? You okay? I am! I am!" Goo immediately began to chatter happily. "I've been waiting to get here alllll day! You won't believe how borrrrriiiing dance lessons were today! Teacher said that we'd be out by three o'clock, but she was wrong, Mac, she was sooooooo wrong! She said three o'clock, but I saw through her, yup! That's cuz I kept my eye on the time, and by the time she said we were all done, it was obviously three-ten and twenty-two seconds, and not-"

"Uh…good to see you too…." Mac just mumbled, which of course was instantly canceled out by the girl's incessant babbling.

"-so I was all like-oh! Oh! Oh, wait! Speakin' of dance, gimme a sec, gimme a sec or two, 'kay? Hold on!"

Before the boy could respond, the little girl shot off like a rocket out onto the porch and just as soon as she had exited the foyer she was already back inside, lugging a heavy duffel bag along with her.

"Hey Mac, where do you want me to put this? Should I put it the closet, like last time, or in your room? I could also leave it right here, but maybe if I do that I should pobably put it near the doorway, so I don't forget it and stuff 'cuz my mom always tell me that-"

"Um, you better bring it up to my room, actually." Mac managed to successfully interrupt her constant blathering. "We should probably keep it there for now, so it doesn't get seen by…well, y'know…" he tried to explain.

Goo grimaced and stuck out her tongue, catching her friend's drift pretty quickly.

"Oh, right! Good thinkin'! Yeah, we gotta hide it 'fore-"

"Well, well, well, what do we have _here_?" a flurry of snide snickers suddenly filled the air, putting an abrupt halt to the children's conversation. Goo whimpered and hugged her bag closely as a smirking azure blob casually made his way down the staircase.

"Hello, Goo," Bloo laughed. "Where have _you_ been all day?"

"Knock it off, Bloo." Mac snapped, rolling his eyes. "You _know_ she has dance practice on Sundays, she always-"

"Oh right, I forgot!" The little imaginary friend gasped in mock horror. "I'm so sorry, Goo, I didn't mean-"

"Don't….." Mac growled threateningly, while Bloo did his best to look shocked by his friend's menacing demeanor.

"Mac, what on earth are you _talking_ about?" he shuddered, trying to stifle a few giggles. "I was merely apologizing to our friend Goo, I don't want to upset our future Riverdance starlet, and-"

Almost immediately the little creature broke out into a mad case of the giggles, barely unable to control himself in his childish glee, forcing his creator to elicit a long, exasperated groan.

"_Bloo_!" Mac cried angrily, stomping his foot.

"It's called Irish step-dancing…an' we're gonna move on to tap after the recital next week…" Goo whined softly, trying to hide her deep blush.

"Oops, my bad again!" Bloo sniggered, enjoying his cruel joke for all it was worth. "Sorry, sorry! Like I said, don't let me ruin your progress or anything. After all, considering all the energy it takes to keep your arms from moving while you dance-"

"Okay Bloo, quit it!" Mac snarled, jabbing angrily at his madly chuckling creation creation.

"Oh, and who's gonna stop me?" Bloo tittered, sticking out his tongue. "You, or our little tap-dancing leprechaun? Heeheehee!"

"Shut up!" The boy growled furiously. "You've used the same stupid jokes _every_ time for the past three weeks! They weren't funny the _first_ time Goo told us what she was doing, and-"

"Hahaha! Are you _kidding_ me?" Bloo squealed, trembling with mirth. "They're hilarious! Heehee! Hey Goo, watch out, or else I'm gonna steal your Lucky Charms!"

"Oh stop it, will you? Now you're just using dumb stereotypes-" Mac tried to protest, will his imaginary friend only winked deviously and began to break out into song.

"Catch me lucky charms, they're magically delicious…" he chanted merrily, prancing about the room like a fool.

"Hey, quit it!" Goo squeaked unhappily in a badly quavering voice, already close to tears at this point. "And b-besides! My f-favorite cereal is Coco Flakes!"

"When Irish eyes are smilin'…" Bloo just bean to croon badly off-key with a devious wink.

"_Bloo_!" Mac yelled as his creation was helplessly overcome with laughter. "I swear, if you don't stop that right now-"

"Or _what_?" Bloo teased the pair mercilessly. "What're you gonna guys gonna do about it? Send your legions of Riverdancing nutjobs against me? Huh? Call them from their secret lair from all the way the end of the rainbow? Hmm? Is that it? Is that-"

"No, they're just gonna send _one_." An extremely irked voice suddenly boomed out from behind him. Instantly the laughter died upon Bloo's lips as his usually vibrant skin tone paled noticeably in his dumb shock.

"Uh oh-"

Before he could get much further, the azure blob was nabbed from behind and hefted high into the air, instantaneously finding himself face to face with his blatantly irked redheaded captor.

"H-hi F-F-Frankie…" the little imaginary friend managed to whisper, trembling uncontrollably in his blind terror. If looks could only kill, the young woman would've already slain him clear on the spot.

"You got something against Irish step-dancing, bucko?" Frankie hissed venomously, forcing Bloo to instinctively cringe in horror as her frosty glare pierced him to the very core of his soul.

"N-n-no…" he muttered in a barely audible squeak. "N-n-n-n-not m-me…"

"Oh, that's _good_." Frankie grunted with a curt nod. "Then I guess it was "all in my head" that I heard _someone_ making fun of traditional Irish dance, huh?"

"Y-y-yes…" Bloo gulped nervously, causing the young woman to break out into a devious smile. "N-n-n-nothing going on h-here…"

"Oooh, that's good, that's reeeaaalllllly good. Y'know want to know exactly _why_, Bloo?" she asked in a fiendishly cordial manner. Her prisoner just nodded mutely, struck dumb by his gut-wrenching fright.

"It's all because I'd _hate_ to think of what I'd have to do if I actually caught _someone_ in the act of making run of Irish step dancing, or "Riverdance", as a few of them like to call it. Sure, I only took _four years_ of it in high school…"

At this point she added an extra hint of vehemence to her glare, and if Bloo could only be able to find his voice again, he was positive he would be screaming himself silly at that point.

"…But then again, no one likes it when some punk takes a couple of cheap shots at their favorite hobby, so I guess no one can blame me, huh? Whadya think, Bloo?"

"N-no…" he managed to murmur after a considerable amount of effort.

"Good thing we agree on this, huh?" She laughed, smiling in the manner of a great white shark about to strike, forcing the little imaginary friend to go so deathly pale he was barely the color of his namesake.

"Since we see eye to eye on the subject, can you do me a favor then, buddy?" Frankie suddenly asked, adding a most sinisterly sweet twist to her tone of voice. "Just lemme know if you see any heartless jerks making fun of my favorite form of dance, okay?"

"A-and if I f-f-find th-them…" Bloo whined, squirming anxiously. The young woman smirked.

"Oh, it'll be nothing, really…I mean, yeah, maybe I'll forced them to eat a couple heaping platefuls of "It", courtesy of Grandma….followed by a one-way trip down the laundry chute…possibly a week of cleaning out the unicorn stables with just a teaspoon...but besides that, I won't do much." She chuckled fiendishly. "I dunno, what do _you_ think? That's fair, right?"

"Y-yes…T-that's p-p-perfectly f-f-fair…show them who's b-b-boss…" Bloo whimpered, seconds away from having a heart attack. Seeing that her job was done, Frankie suddenly drew the badly shaking little imaginary friend forward for a quick hug, causing him to tense up and go as stiff as a board.

"I'm _so_ glad we had this little talk, aren't you?" she giggled jubilantly, patting his head a few times before gently settling him down upon the floor. Almost immediately the azure blob dashed away from the caretaker as fast as he could, literally throwing himself behind Mac and cowering miserably like a frightened puppy.

For about a minute, the entire foyer was cloaked in a dead silence, which of course was abruptly shattered by the enthused squeal of-

"_You_ took dance _too_, Frankie?" Goo yelped joyously, already nearly bursting with excitement with this newfound discovery. The redhead grinned from ear to ear as she gave the child a modest nod.

"Oh, just a few years, nothin' much." She replied as the madly tittering little girl immediately bolted over to her side.

"That's soooooo _COOL_!" Goo whooped to the high heavens, grabbing hold of the young woman's emerald sweater and bouncing up and down gleefully. "Really? You did dance? Really? Huh? With who? Who was your teacher? Did any of your friends do it too? You said you did it high school! Wow! What were your recitals like? Were there lotsa people there? Did-"

Frankie smiled and ruffled the child's hair affectionately. "Y'know, I think I have some pictures in my old scrapbook upstairs, actually. Maybe they'll help answer some of your questions. You wanna see?"

"_YEAH_!" Goo squeaked in rapture. "Oh, will you? Please? Pretty please? Yeah! Yeah!"

"C'mon, I'll show you!" Frankie laughed as trotted up the staircase, her little admirer impishly prancing about her and giggling uncontrollably in her euphoria.

"Oh wait, you wanna come to, Mac?" Frankie paused to inquire politely. Mac smiled and nodded.

"Yup, just gimme a minute or two, I just gotta…I-I gotta…"

The eight-year-old trailed off, trying to unsuccessfully stifle his laughter while he gave the wildly-quivering little blob that lay tightly curled up against him a reassuring pat. The lanky caretaker just grinned and flashed him a sly wink.

"Yup, not a problem, pal! See you upstairs in a little bit, guys!"

"C'monnnnn, Frankie, let's go!" Goo squeaked, squirming about impatiently as she began to forcibly drag the redhead along with her.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Frankie giggled as allowed herself to be yanked along.

Their elated cries reverberating loudly behind them, the pair shot off into the upper reaches of the old Victorian mansion, leaving the foyer almost completely empty except for the young boy and his badly frazzled imaginary friend.

"So…are you gonna be okay?" Mac asked as he continued to pet the little imaginary friend's gelatinous head comfortingly. Bloo just whimpered softly as he huddled as close against the eight-year-old's legs as he possibly could.

"So _that's_ why Frankie always beats me in Dance-Dance Revolution…" he muttered ruefully. "And why she never moves her arms when she does it."

Mac just grinned, unable to miss the divine opportunity.

"Maybe….that, or because you don't have any real legs or feet, too…"

**The End**

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Nothing much, just a little random something I wrote in my spare time...which I may have a bit too much of.

Also, this isn't meant to be a critique of anything, to put things straight, I'm proud of my Irish heritage.

As usual, all feedback is appreciated!


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